Flojomojo

Yep, it worked out great for them, and Sega, Sony, Microsoft all followed their lead. Control the platform or you get jackholes making bad software for it. Hey, Atari could have distributed the NES if they wanted to.

I'll see your flexi-disc and raise you an e-reader

I think that happens anytime something goes mass market. One breakout hit and then everyone tries to duplicate that success -- while minimizing risk to themselves by not veering too far from what they see as the winning formula. The same could be said of books, films, music. There are very specific genres where people play nowadays. PC players look down on console gamers. FPS is ridiculed by the MMO crowd and vice versa. The MOBA and e-sports people are doing their own thing, as are mobile gamers. People bitch about loot boxes, people bitch about pay to win, people bitch about microtransactions. Some people won't play a game that requires a constant internet connection. Others won't play single-player. There were some innovations along the way ... 3D in hardware, CD-ROM, online, HD for everyone -- each of these technologies were gamified, with varying results. Nintendo picked some gimmicks for themselves with rumble, motion, stereoscopic vision, emulation/monetization of their back catalog. 3DS experimented with some under-appreciated things, like AR gaming, SpotPass (safely interact with strangers that you "met" in real space) and the odometer that gave you coins for walking around with your handheld. The original post in this thread said Then don't argue with them. Popularizing something counts as much as being "first," arguably more so.

I could be wrong, but he certainly acts like he has at least a partial stake in the Coleco part of the Dormitus Brands empire. He calls himself a Partner. Of course, he also calls himself the CEO and Owner of Castle Windows for the past 24 years, or since he was 18 or so. I think he's a big picture kind of guy. I just watched five minutes of him shouting and swearing in his big movie, so maybe I'm a little biased. Dude is a bit of a dilettante. Perhaps he should work his way through the other names. Underalls could use the Cardillo touch. In addition to recycled plastic bottles, CC could make some of their products with recycled mini-arcades, cartridge shells, and bootleg GI Joe toys. You know, for kids.

LOL you f'ing hipster ... you sound like me talking about early Macintosh games. We're in weird little niches and no one cares about us.

Forgot to say -- this movie is going on way too long! I agree that it won't end well, but WHEN WILL IT END? The Godzilla vs Mothra question: who are you rooting for in the lawsuit? Feargal or Atari? Or some kind of giant meteor that selectively destroys them both?

I agree with everything you said, my foul-mouthed friend, especially this part. I'm pretty sure I've posted this before, either here or in one of the Retro Chameleon threads, but it bears repeating. I hate Dilbert except when he's so right. In the case of AtariBox, the brand name is literally their only unique asset. They wouldn't have gotten anywhere with crowdfunding if it was called anything else. The suck-ups in the IGG comments make it clear they're living in some alternate reality where they just want their childhood back. I understand that -- here's yours truly, rhapsodizing about Coleco and Sega in Target in 2006. John Phelan asks, "Am I the last Atari fan?" It would be nice for this shitty company to recognize what they're doing to people like him.

I guess it depends on what you mean by "scam." He was trying to get two million dollars of other people's money so he, Woita, and Carlsen could quit their jobs and do Retro Chameleon full time. They all said strange things, loudly and constantly. Woita wanted the cartridges to last forever. Carlsen wanted to patent stuff. Kennedy thought he was the Willy Wonka of retro games just because podcasts listened to him and let him talk ... and he talked a LOT. He contradicted himself constantly. Anyone following the story with half a brain could see where it was headed. He did not disappoint, the flameouts were spectacular. I'd been registered on this site for years prior, but this story hooked me like a soap opera. Small businesses with big dreams start up every day, and most of them fail. I think Mike's biggest issue was that he didn't realize how incompetent he was. It seemed as if he thought he could buy or talk his way out of the core problems with his concept (no developers, audience, distribution, or reason to exist). After the fact, he tried to say, "don't blame me, I gave all my money to a con man" as if that excused or explained anything. "Atari" has many of the same issues -- the "AtariBox" is a weak concept, poorly communicated. It operates at arm's length from Atari SA, probably for reasons of plausible deniability. It's had obvious problems that we can see from the outside, like slow development, infighting as evidenced by Feargal's legal complaint, no evidence that they've actually made anything, and their main dude breaking his leg. We can't see the inside, so for all we know the plywood castle has burned to the ground and Moak's Lucky Beard has fallen out. Don't like my logic? See also: "it hasn't proven to be a scam." It's pretty clear this project isn't for the benefit of the fans, it's just to tell someone that "Atari is back" and that they're working in hardware again. Who is the real audience supposed to be? The board of directors, the shareholders, potential acquiring firms? We can tell they're not interested in even the appearance of trying to make good games themselves, because the new catch phrase on their website is, "Atari, so much more than video games." Even if this thing delivers, which to me seems increasingly unlikely with every passing week, it's not going to do much. Maybe "Atari" doesn't care, just so long as they get some press and pretend they're relevant and not a joke. Speaking of Feargal, the lawsuit docket has a minor update -- a final extension of time to complete discovery. It's hard to imagine there's too much to learn by going through Feargal's correspondence and contracts with "Atari." Maybe someone is stalling the legal proceedings to give Rob "Tin Giant Sandwich" Wyatt one last chance to move the project further along, just so they can claim it's substantially different from what Feargal did? Shall we help them with their concession speech? This is a difficult email to write. Atari VCS was conceived as a love letter to the fans. We chose the IndieGogo platform so we could engage with classic gamers and make them a part of the process. Unfortunately, this historic undertaking has been sabotaged by former associates, acting in bad faith and claiming credit for work that has not been performed. As a result, Atari Game Box LLC's financial resources have been exhausted and the organization has been disbanded. We are truly sorry but we want to thank each and every one of you for your enthusiasm and support. Some of you have asked about our refund policy. The truth is that our refund policy is more of a fact, like gravity, than a policy. We are unable to grant cash refunds, but we have something almost as good for you: each and every Atari VCS backer will receive (1) a digital voucher to download Atari Vault from the Steam store, (2) an in-game credit for RollerCoaster Tycoon Touch for mobile devices in the amount of five dollars, and best of all, (3) one more opportunity to purchase limited edition AtariLife® SpeakerHats for the low price of $99 with free shipping. Thanks so much for being on this RollerCoaster Tycoon of a ride, and stay tuned for future products and services from Atari! and to the shareholders (in French) Fiscal 2019 was another banner year for Atari SA. The lawsuit with Target Corporation over their use of "foot Pong" was settled out of court, as was the lawsuit with Feargal Mac Conuladh. The software side continues to sell moderately well. Tempest 4000 was the #55 Most Shared PS4 Game of 2018 on Metacritic, while Atari Flashback Classics received a review score of 68. The Casino unit has made great strides exploiting the lax enforcement environment of the African continent, and the Cryptocurrency unit has been right-sized to reflect changing market realities.

Switch Online is GREAT at $20/year -- if for no other reason than a big pool of NES ROMs, some of which have been hacked to be more interesting.

It looks like the Kickstarter shipped recently. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/903316019/coleco-evolved-mini-arcades/comments

It's a tale told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, signifying nothing. There's no "AtariBox," just a sales pitch. You can search for it on IndieGogo, but there isn't much to go on. What do you "really like" about it? Or are you just trying to troll?

My play time is limited so mobile works best for me ... Shadowgun Legends is the closest I get to this kind of thing. This is the story that got me started. https://kotaku.com/i-cant-stop-playing-a-free-destiny-clone-1825830789

Oops ...I stopped reading at "Sit back and enjoy gaming at a distance" and missed "with an extra long 10 foot cord!"Less tempting, at least for me.

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/1247448559/next-gen-dreamcast-controller Ergonomic, wireless. Tempting.

So you think he's got a shill account who just drives up the bids, but never buys? That seems self-defeating. The whole point of an auction is to find the price people are willing to pay. Just having someone in the back of the room shouting "what a great deal!" shouldn't be enough to change anyone's mind.

Isn't that what this thread is all about?

Great news, Bill!!

I prefer young Obi-Wan, but yeah, maybe old Alec fits the demographic better.

Yes, North America is pretty ignorant of the rest of the world, including Europe. It would be interesting to see numbers, though. I think there were 3 million CPCs, which is more in the Colecovision/Intellivision order of magnitude than what the NES did. It really was the first mainstream breakout console hit in USA since the Atari VCS, and the default game standard for a while, even as Euro computers split their nice market 3, 4, or 5 different ways.

TACO shell. The Atari SA crew wouldn't be able to pick the Jaguar out of a lineup.

It was sold separately for US$30. Only a few games NEED it (Majora, DK64 and Perfect Dark), but there's a bunch of games that are enhanced with it ... or at least trade up to higher resolution graphics at a slower framerate. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nintendo_64_accessories#Expansion_Pak_(NUS-007) It was also packed into the colorful "iMac" versions of the console.

Please do not confuse doing things badly with not doing anything at all. By imagining what could go wrong before you do it, you can avoid stupid mistakes. You can make your own Linux-based "AtariBox" for the price of commodity hardware, without paying "Atari" a cent and certainly without waiting.

A few years ago, I made a bit of an effort to learn about and appreciate the Amiga. I was gobsmacked to learn it only supported one action button. I figured it was a super-advanced arcade type thing, like the Genesis, which has a lot of the same games. They all look like game consoles to me nowadays, especially the early Atari computers with their cartridges and very familiar software titles.

Probably because Activision didn't have to lift a finger to license their ancient ROMs to AtGames. They just had to cash a check.